The Texas Observer

Country’s Largest Air Pollution Permit Issued to Power Plant for Data Centers in West Texas, Developer Says

It’s among a handful of similarly colossal ventures announced during 2025, making Texas the global epicenter of a gas power ...
The Texas Observer

Trump’s Plan for Venezuelan Oil Raises Prospects of Paramilitary Violence

Latin America has lots of experience with private military contractors protecting foreign companies in lawless conflict zones ...
The Texas ObserverOpinion

In Texas Cities, Let a Hundred Mamdanis Bloom

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The Texas Observer

Uvalde Trial Raises Question of Whether Police Stop School Shootings

Please tag the Texas Observer in social media posts promoting the republished story. Three drones whirred loudly in a gray ...
The Texas Observer

The River and the Fever Dream

A converted digital camera can use infrared light to reveal Texas border militarization—in the same way the armed forces once ...
The Texas Observer

Austin’s Willy Baltazar Is a Man of Many Masks

Please tag the Texas Observer in social media posts promoting the republished story. This pop culture mash-up serves as a ...
The Texas Observer

Strangest State: Escaped Exotics, Tariffs, Trickery, and Guns

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The Texas Observer

A Bloody Injustice

Warren Horinek was so intoxicated he could barely speak. His first words to the 911 dispatcher were mangled and unintelligible. He gathered himself and tried again. The words were still slurred, but ...
The Texas Observer

In Texas State Jails, a Rising Death Toll and a Broken Promise

Once billed as rehabilitative alternatives to prisons, these facilities are the sites of fatal overdoses—like that which ...
The Texas Observer

‘Black Bird Redemption Song’: A Fort Worth Artist’s Work on Confinement, Freedom, and Fred Rouse

Huckaby, a Fort Worth native and longtime professor at UT-Arlington, made his name creating massive, mural-sized paintings ...
The Texas Observer

Goodbye to a Neighborhood

In the small Gulf Coast city of Freeport, a pretty mint-green house stands alone in a neighborhood called the East End, surrounded by what looks at first glance like a meadow. Closer examination ...